If you think you may be sleep deprived, it may help to temporarily reduce your sleep, say researchers. Sleep restriction sounds contradictory when you close your eyes, but it can actually be very helpful.
Bad sleepers often lie in bed longer than necessary, hoping to get some extra sleep. By lying awake in bed and sleeping little by little, your sleep rhythm is disrupted even more, say psychologists from the sleep center of Haaglanden MC. Sleep restriction is a method for people with sleeping problems, where you temporarily shorten the number of hours you are in bed. By reducing pointless 'wake-up hours' and actually sleeping when you are in bed, you train your body to sleep better.
Actual sleep
Sleep restriction is often part of a therapeutic treatment and works best under supervision, but the principle is quite simple. According to Harvard researchers, you go to bed later than usual the first night, starting with four hours of sleep. If you feel you slept well in those four hours, add 15 to 30 minutes the next night. As long as you're actually sleeping during the hours you're in bed, you'll keep adding time up to the number of hours you need to be fit during the day. Ultimately, you are supposed to spend more than 80 percent of the time sleeping in bed.
Positive sleep incentives
Besides sleep restriction, there are more things you can do to sleep better at night, according to experts from Haaglanden MC. Creating positive sleep stimuli, for example. Sleep stimuli are the ritual of going to bed and environmental characteristics such as your bed, your bedroom and the night. The stimuli give your body the signal that it is time to go to sleep. Bad sleep habits, such as lying awake in bed with your phone, give new meaning to the stimulus. Your bed, bedroom and evening ritual are suddenly no longer intended only for sleeping, resulting in unrest. Your brain and body therefore need clear signals that they can go into the relax position, and luckily you can largely control this yourself. So it's better to grab your yoga mat, dim the light and do some stretching exercises.
Text:Emma Verweij , Sources:Haaglanden MC / Harvard Health Publishing
